Wetherspoons bars smart glasses from filming customers

Wetherspoons has stopped short of banning Meta-style smart glasses from its pubs, but told The Register that customers should switch off their cameras and refrain from filming. "Like many hospitality companies, Wetherspoon has CCTV cameras for security reasons, but their use is strictly controlled by data legislation," a spokesperson said. "Apart from that, the general code that applies in our pubs, and most pubs, is that you can't film customers or employees without their permission. "Meta glasses seem to breach this code, and common sense, by enabling surreptitious surveillance, so our instinct is to say turn off the cameras. This is akin to our efforts to stop audible playing of videos in our pubs, which also invades people's space." The Register asked whether customers who refused to stop recording would be ejected, but Wetherspoons declined to elaborate. Wetherspoons' statement suggests that recording, rather than merely wearing the glasses during a wallet-friendly session, would attract the attention of security staff. The policy is therefore less strict than those adopted by venues and events that have banned recording glasses outright over privacy concerns. DEF CON, which concluded last week, was the latest in a series of organizations to issue outright bans on Meta-style recording glasses, even for those who use them with prescription lenses. Conference organizers told delegates to pack "non-violating eyewear" if they needed them. Monopoly Events, which runs UK Comic Cons among other events, recently imposed a ban after talent agencies and guests raised concerns about privacy and the effect of covert recording on personal interactions. Scottish ferry operator CalMac also temporarily suspended unplanned visits to ships' bridges after a passenger made crew members feel uncomfortable during a crossing in June. Restaurateur Jeremy King, who owns London's Arlington, The Park, and Simpson's in the Strand, has said the glasses should not be worn in his establishments. Similarly, private members' club Soho House does not allow recording inside its venues, a policy that extends to Meta-style glasses. Brighton's Yellow Book Bar called the glasses "creepy and intrusive" when announcing its ban, and theatre companies ATG Entertainment and Trafalgar Entertainment do not permit them either. Meta's smart glasses have become shorthand for the wider category of camera-equipped eyewear. Google unveiled Glass in 2012 but failed to turn it into a mainstream consumer product. Meta and EssilorLuxottica launched their first Ray-Ban Stories glasses in 2021, followed by the second-generation Ray-Ban Meta range in 2023 and an expansion into Oakley-branded models. Meta's glasses have become the most prominent products in the category, prompting other tech companies to work on rivals. The next-gen eyewear has proven especially popular among social media users, allowing them to record high-res, hands-free, and first-person footage with ease. Unlike Google Glass, however, the wearables are largely indistinguishable from their analog counterparts, which makes their recording capabilities all the more problematic. The camera in Meta's specs is small and embedded neatly inside the glasses' frame. The company routinely highlights that each pair is fitted with a recording light, which activates when the user begins shooting video, and that if this light is covered up, then recording immediately stops. The feature has done little to appease those who feel the cameras are an invasion of privacy. UK law does not generally prevent individuals from filming in public, although pubs are private premises and may set their own rules. Smart glasses make those rules harder to enforce because recording is far less conspicuous than when someone points a smartphone at the scene. Researchers have shown that Meta's glasses can be paired with apps that can dox passersby in seconds. Others have worked up projects that inform Android users of nearby glasses-wearers using Bluetooth signals. Meta faces a UK data protection probe concerning the cross-border data flows of its glasses' footage after Kenyan reviewer teams reported seeing footage from wearers' more intimate moments. ®